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Copyright

Benjamin Hary;

Published On

2025-03-07

Page Range

pp. 429–458

Language

  • English

Print Length

30 pages

Written Egyptian Judaeo-Arabic

Implications for the Spoken Variety

  • Benjamin Hary (author)
Chapter of: Interconnected Traditions: Semitic Languages, Literatures, Cultures—A Festschrift for Geoffrey Khan: Volume 2: The Medieval World, Judaeo-Arabic, and Neo-Aramaic(pp. 429–458)
The article analyses Egyptian Judaeo-Arabic (EJA) as a religiolect, emphasising its historical development, linguistic features, and its interplay with Standard Egyptian Arabic and Hebrew/Aramaic. EJA is characterised by unique phonological traits, such as the preference for the vowel /u/ and the use of Hebrew-origin phonemes like /p/. Morphosyntactic features include variations in verb conjugation, noun pluralisation, and pronominal forms. The study highlights the influence of Hebrew and Aramaic, often seen in loanwords, calques, and textual translations. The study offers insights into the community’s social and religious dynamics. EJA’s linguistic distinctiveness reflects a blend of preservation and adaptation, shaped by migration, cultural identity, and interaction with surrounding linguistic communities.

Contributors

Benjamin Hary

(author)
Professor at Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, Director at New York University

Benjamin Hary (PhD, University of California, Berkeley) is a Professor at the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University and the current director of NYU Tel Aviv. His research interests include Judaeo-Arabic language and linguistics; Jewish language varieties; Jews in the Islamic world; and sociolinguistics, dialectology, and language variation. He is the author of several books and many articles. Among them, Translating Religion: Linguistic Analysis of Judeo-Arabic Sacred Texts from Egypt (Brill, 2009) and (with Sarah Benor) Languages in Jewish Communities, Past and Present (De Gruyter Mouton, 2018).